Tag: east coast sailing

I spent most my childhood in front of a screen, fine tuning my skills and gear in Final Fantasy, and other Roll playing games. Endless hours in upgrading cars in Gran Tourismo, getting the smallest tweak here and there, lighter flywheel, better clutch…

It was expensive with the fictional money and gold that you earned I remember.

It’s also pretty bad in real life too…

I now get a sick feeling every time I tap my Visa card. Very different from a year ago, I loved the ease of it all, and racking up the travel points was a bonus for my annual Thailand winter holiday.

Thats all changed now, as everyday I’ve been hitting store after store, for bits n bobs, stainless this and adapter that. Valves, paints, tools (oh god the tools)…It’s a bit ridiculous… The depth at which one can go while working on a boat is actually, never ending.

I just realized this the other day, and there in lies my love for it all.

Finally, my water tanks are finished!I remember it was fun playing mechanic in the marina, but here with lots of free time, a good budget, it’s even better. I’m making good use of my time, everyday I try to start one task minimum- and on a good day, I actually complete some.

As our instructors repeated over and over “(in the marine field) anything is possible with enough time and money”.

I believe it too. Fiberglass and epoxy seem like magical things.

Endless possibilities in modifications in every system, plumbing, electrical, rigging, comfort, entertainment, head, stowage… and every piece has an addendum. Every system is made up of subsystems of parts, screws and fittings, which are made up of different qualities in materials, and good luck finding what you need. It’s an absolute mission some days getting what you need. I had to drive to the states just to get a special epoxy last week.

Tomorrow however I have been promised my main sail with extra reefs and re-stitched. My full enclosure should be complete soon also.

Then I’m free to escape the daily hardware store runs and hotdogs at Costco.

I’ve finished the water tanks, and today replaced most of the water lines in the boat. That, was a brutal yet satisfying task.

The main port window was leaking a bit, so I found a gutter system that RVs use… Looks like it’ll work, and I’ve heard good things!

I’ve wired in a 12v horn and bus bar into the mix. No more air horn for me! Princess Auto $20 special and it sounds great, but I need to fabricate an enclosure for it… Tried fiberglass but it didn’t look too good, so tomorrow I’ll try a melting a Lexan sheet into shape and hope for the best.

My first fiberglass project… Functional but ugly, I’ll try Lexan nextThe decks been cleaned and looks nice. I’m looking at painting the interior a bit, lightening things up from the dark teak wood, but I’m no good with these choices… This is when I need a wife to help out, as I’m fashion blind in all things decorative.

Storm sail. Same with the wife, I don’t have one.

Tomorrow I go up the mast to tinker on a few things, but also to look at installing a block at the top to run a line for a dedicated storm jib. It will be designed to be raised over the fureled jib, with large sail cloth “Hanks” that slide easily over and give the proper shape. In theory…

Lots more on the go. Hopefully soon it will be the boat, going south for the main quest in this game.

There’s a wizard in every great game…

My response time from when the knife slips to putting on bandaids is instant. Too much practice

Everything will give you cancer. This stuff just might take a bit longer than the other sealants

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